Viva Tamil Techno

"Are you from this century ??" was the look Danger and Kulasegar gave me. Yes, I usually get asked that question every time I ask people "How does this new T-shirt look on me". But this time it was entirely different, I had merely exhibited my expertise on TFM (Tamil Film Music) by mentioning one of my latest favorite songs. But in Kulasegar's defense, it was natural. My latest song had to be carbon dated to find it's age while Kulasegar was looking like the Whole Foods of TFM. For the next few hours, we listened to CD after CD of the latest (latest as in in 2008 latest) songs and I have to say I am pleasantly surprised.

Top Ten Takes On TFM

1. The music "sounds" so good, but does it sound good?? Of course, it has always sounded good, but this time, it "sounds" good too. Is a master's degree in sound engineering mandatory to become a music director these days ?? There were no rough edges that I could find, but yes, sometimes, the songs get eerily smooth. Live instruments are becoming absent a rate higher than Sachin Tendular's strike rate. This can't be a good thing. No more "raakamma kaiya thattu" ?? No more "andhi mazhai??". No more "en iniya pon nilave" ?? No more "iLaya nila" ?? Please don't do this guys.

2. The bane of Udito-Narayanoisis still exists. Unfortunately. When he came in with "kadhalikkum peNNin", we all liked it. Even with "sonia, sonia", it was acceptable since that song needed an anti-unnikrishnan. But then, when you give him a song like "sahana" when there is hariharan just around the corner singing "poombaavaai", you are pushing the envelope too far. Would "engeyo partha mayakkam" from "yaaradi nee mohini" sound better with another singer ?? I would like to hear though.

3. The lyrics are clean. Wow. Is this the same industry that gave such timeless family classics like "ei kutti munnale" and other language-intensive songs like "metro channel munna paaru" ?? Bheema's "mudhal mazhai", Vaazhthukkal's "kannil vandadhum", the title song from "unnale unnale" - all of them and more have lyrics in thamizh and only thamizh and nothing but thamizh. So who are these people who do such a big injustice to the thamizh language by writing lyrics in thamizh ?? Pa. Vijay ?? Na. Muthukumar ??

4. Don't push your luck with the video always. Please. Take my word and just listen to them on your player. If you really insist, then try this. Listen to "tajmahal oviya kadhal" from "kaLvanin kaadhali". You find it good? Nice. Now watch the video with SJ Soorya. Or listen to "unakuLL naane urugum iravil" from "pachaikiLi muthucharam". Then, watch the video where a senior looking sarathkumar walks up and down while a dozen ringwraiths dance around him with flames.

5. Experimenting with voices has always been something that impressed me with TFM. There sure was a time when it was all SPB and Malaysia Vasudevan. Even then, you had a Mano and an SN Surendhar and a Jeyachandran in the mix. Now, just about every song sounds different and there is a tonne of talent at the background singing department. Tipu, Karthik, Devan, Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jeyashree, Nithyashree, Anuradha Shriram, Sadhana Sargam, Manicka Vinayagam, Harish Raghavendra - the list goes on. A few Karnatic Music types are going to frown on me, but considering my knowledge in Karnatic Music, i don't even deserve to be frowned at. So, relax.

6. Upstart Music Directors is something new though. Until ARR in 1990, raise your hands if you remember Chandrabose who was Ilayaraja's contemporary in a strictly temporal sense ?? I tried real hard, but couldn't even remember anyone else from that period. SPB scored music when he was bored, you have an Adithyan sighting once in a while, Maragadhamani makes a cameo, Manoj-Gyan score every other aabavaNaN film - but it was well and truly the Ilayaraja show with the rest just making up the numbers. But now, I do believe there is a healthy competition between a dozen of them. Harris Jeyaraj is the poor man's ARR, Bharadwaj and Vidhyasagar make some amazing music when paired up with the right director, YSR becomes the surprise successor to IR and you also have Joshua Shridhar, GV Prakash Kumar, Vijay Anthony and the likes.

7. Where is the punch? Few paragraphs above we did the usual chest-beating with quality of music and lyrics and singers etc. Its time now to yield to the "Dark Side". Where O Where are the kuthu songs? "yamma yamma" from "vallavan" is an instant classic, "saroja saman nikkalo" from "chennai-28" makes you get out of the seat - but is there any other true contender who can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with yesteryear hits like "aalthotta boopadhi" and "gemini gemini". Mind you, I am not even going into older hits like "vethala potta shokkula" from amaran or "anna nagaru aandaaLu" from "kalamellam kaadhal vaazhga". We consciously do not want to be a music industry filled only with songs for "Guy who split from girl friend due to misuderstanding", "Girl fascinating about future husband", "Son waiting to go to college and experience the world" etc. We do have drunk parties where we need to take our shirts off you see.

8. Lifesavers. They truly are. In the 80s and 90s, movies used to open up - and even run successfully - just because they had Ilayaraja. Ask ex-MP Ramarajan (if you, the reader, are from Tiruchendur, you owe us all an explanation. Yes, from Madurai we voted Subramaniya Swamy once. But thats a different story) and he would swear by it. Ramarajan movie plots are highly interchangeable with some combination of his mother, koundamani, senthil as his friends, a villain who owns a mill/farm and his daughter who is highly educated, but falls in love with RR after initial outburts over useless matters (punctured cycle, broken car pane etc). The greatest difference would be that in some movies the villain is RR's uncle while in others he is not. But the songs really kept going and Ramarajan broke box office records until even the songs became interchangeable. Similarly, these days, there are movies that are remembered/watched/discussed just because of they have good songs but are lousy otherwise.

9. No Reshammaiyahs/Talat Azizs. If you can't consider this a privilege, I don't know what else to say. Reshammaiyah and Aziz used to make me drop the remote and cower into a corner every time I run into them while channel surfing. Touchwood, TFM hasn't created any thing in that segment at this level.

10. TFM Rocks because it's TFM. Today, anyone who is a fan of TFM just visits an online mp3 site and downloads the songs. Peace. But in the 1980s me and our bretheren used to run from store to store to buy audio tapes, and sometimes spend an extra 5 bucks on "CD Recording" just to hear the masters at their work. All you lucky, computer-savvy, Y-Gens - enjoy your luck :-).

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Good Knight, Good Luck

How many times have we been able to say there is "no let up in the action" about a movie? Die Hard comes to mind immediately. How many times have we been able to say that "its an interesting look into our own minds" about a movie? Did you just say Fight Club ? How many times have we said "a refreshing super hero movie thats better than the prequel"? Spiderman 2, maybe? How many times has one been able to say all of it about one movie? Not until "The Dark Knight". Before you click the link to read further, be warned there are a lot of spoilers below. If you haven't seen the movie, you are going to feel quite miserable if you click that link. Even if you have seen it, its quite possible that you might feel miserable after having to read through my blog, but that an entirely different point.



Its easier for Bale fans to write reams about him in this movie. Heck, I would probably defend him in "Reign of Fire". I'd probably go on about his under-playing of the batman role to an extent where it looks like a Joker film at times, or his portrayal of his wayne-vs-batman conflicts - but coming from a fanboy, you are better of skipping to the next bunch of paragraphs.

That leaves us with a lot of people - Caine, Oldman, Eckhart - all who do their roles good service. But the one that towers above all them is the late Ledger. There are already talks of Ledger being nominated for an Oscar. First up, I don't understand the hype about Oscars. The academy snubs Denzel for "Hurricane" and awards him for "Training Day". Crowe gets shafted for "Insider", but wins for "Gladiator". Scorsese is screwed a tonne of times, for Good Fellas - no less, and wins it for a remake. So, whats all the fuss about Oscars?

There are also going to be comparisons between Nicholson's Joker and Ledger's. We could do well to compare SMG and SRT's ODI strike rates. Nicholson's Joker comes from a pseudo-comic-book world, where villains and heroes and everyone around them are a bit larger than life. Ledger's comes from our own confused times. His one dialogue sums it up: "I am like a dog chasing a car, I don't have a plan". And true to all the hype, he gives one of the memorable performances by a movie villain because of the way he has chosen to interpret his role. There are several scenes that stand out. The interrogation sequence, the hospital scene where the Joker actually convinces the disturbed Dent that he isn't the bad guy or the last sequence where the Joker says how Batman "completes" him. The way the movie is set up, the Joker is an integral part of the next movie and the sad part is that we wouldn't have Ledger to take this character to yet another level. However, is this the best-ever performance by an actor in a villainous role? Nope. Not even in the last two years. Anton Chighurh would have shot the Joker with a cattle bolt rifle and not ruffled his hair-do.

As a batman fan, I like the way all the characters from the batman universe find a role in Nolan's movies. Gordon, Fox, Pennyworth - they are all there and they have strong roles. However, I am a bit disappointed with the end(??) of Two-Face. Please tell me he isn't dead, but is safely stashed in Arkham and will be back for the next movie. Two-Face is perhaps the second-best Batman villain after the Joker because he comes from the same place as Batman does, but lost his way in the middle. Having Batman fight the Joker _and_ Two Face in the next one has me lining up outside the theaters for the midnight show right away.

The best thing to happen since inventing the Zip would probably be giving the reins of the Batman franchise to Chris Nolan. While other 'brothers' have lost their steam (read: Wachowskis) and some others have very different priorities (read: Scotts), the Nolans are spot on in whatever they do. The screenplay and tempo of TDK is just flawless. They take a superhero movie, which, by definition is super-human, but add so many human elements into it than anyone has. Be it the choices that people have to make, our conflicts with our own heroes, the thin difference between a good guy and a bad guy, our trust in the next guy, the never-ending debate of civil liberties vs security - Nolan has a way of including all these elements into the story. But what strikes me most is how reflective Nolan's work is of the core elements of Batman. As many of the pre-release articles indicate, I see a lot of similarities with Alan Moore's "Killing Joke". In "KJ", the Joker goes all out to prove to Batman that all that it takes is one bad day to reduce a hero into a crazed nutcase. Compare that with how the Joker tries to break Gotham's belief by destroying it's heroes - Batman and Dent - by intentionally switching the locations and have Batman go after Dent instead of Dawes. In the novel, Gordon who gets caught in the middle, survives and holds on to his sanity. In the movie, Dent loses it while Batman doesn't. Towards the end of the novel, the Batman and Joker share a lighter moment knowing that they have to live with each other. Although not in that scale, TDK ends on a similar note where both the characters realize that they are more entwined than they ever could have thought.

As a fan, what more can you ask from Nolan? He assembled a classic cast for both his movies, he saved the franchise, he gave us two great movies, each of which satisfies the entire spectrum of fans - both the casual movie fan and the comic/graphic novel fan, he gave a human element to both his movies much like how Raimi did with his Spiderman movies, but quite darker, he sets everything up neatly for a great third movie. What else can a fan ask from a director? Probably a promise to come back for the third movie. Probably a quick thriller like the "Prestige" in between this and the next movie. Probably picking up another 'considered-dead' franchise and bring it back to life.

The next few years are going to be fun. A new actor has to be signed for the Joker. Bale needs to find time between filming the Terminator movies. But we can all rest in peace as long as the franchise is in the able hands of Nolan. To paraphrase the Joker, "Here....We....Go".

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Kingdom Come

"He has to be here somewhere. Look again"
"I found him"
"Where ?"
"There !!"

What follows next leaves you with a feeling you cannot explain in words - like a sunset in sandy island or a layup in the dying seconds of a game - Indy on top of a german U-boat with the theme playing in the background, stopping just a second for a salute and then disappearing. That scene captures the entire spirit of the Indiana Jones series. "How did he get to the submarine without being spotted ??" "Its a submarine, how can he hide _outside_ ??" "It's the whole German army against 1 man ??" - these questions apply to mere mortals, not to Dr Henry Jones Jr.

I am admittedly an Indy fanboy. The one who looks at the replica hat at the disney store who later sighs at at the price tag, the one who sings the theme in full gusto while going on the Indy ride while other adults look on amusedly, the one who will argue endlessly about how Temple of Doom is far superior and highly underrated. Naturally, the expectations rocketed beyond the outer-most-osphere. Usually when they do that, they come down with a resounding thud. So read this review at your own risk.

After multiple viewings of the trilogy on DVD over the years, and two marathon viewings of all the films (in pieces) over the last weekend, I knew exactly how fans of Star Wars would've felt waiting for the midnight showing of "Phantom Menace". At about 3am this morning, I still knew how Star Wars fans felt _after_ watching "Phantom Menace".

Here is a sneak peek from Spielberg's production notes. There are spoilers abound, so watch out.

On a lazy saturday afternoon after having two eggs for breakfast and scratching the lower chin

Yawn, I've made one too many serious films and I just want to relax. Look at that Soderbergh guy who goes on a vacation with an ever-growing entourage of stars every two years only to shoot a home video and release it as an Ocean movie. Can I make Jaws 5 ? or Jurassic Park 4 ? Or are they off their shelf life already ?

Hunting game at Skywalker Ranch

Splendid. Ford is bored after his critically acclaimed, smash hit films like "Firewall" and "Hollywood Homicide". Lucas just realized that he can't go on milking Luke Skywalker forever. As they say, it takes three to tango. Background music start.

After watching a sweaty Lucas trying to blather something on the lines of "phantom, clones, revenge"

Lucas acted a bit strange today. When I said I am planning a sequel to an iconic series after 19 years, he hid all copies of "The Phantom Menace" before offering to help. Should enquire further.

After encountering a serious director's block

Hmm, we had the truck chase in RotLA, the rail car chase in ToD and the tank chase in LC. Today, Ford is approaching the age when he plays roles like Presidents (absolutely no need to overwork oneself) and Software Experts (-ditto-). George wants an intensely-CGI filled car chase where no one knows whats going on. Incidentally, he also owns ILM. Enquire this further too.

Desperate to get an idea and accidentally sitting on an ant hill

We did snakes, we did bugs, we did rats. What shall we do now ?? Think Steven, think. Ah, let us do Ants. A lot of fake-looking CGI ants. There.

Weighing up the paying public

Snake gag, check.
Whip gag, check.
Hat gag, double check.
Now the audience will forget everything else and agree its an Indy movie. Thank goodness.

After watching "Queen Elizabeth" and "Beowulf" in makeup

Its funny how many people said okay to be in this film without even reading the script. Take Cate Blanchett, the Meryl Streep of this generation, who just gave her nod for a terribly one-dimensional character. Wait till she meets Jim Broadbent, Ray Winstone and William Hurt who have no-dimensional roles. Chuckle, chuckle.

Planning for the future

We are planning to shoot the last sequence tomorrow. Now that Ford cannot do another movie, George and I have planned to have a symbolic scene where he hands over his whip and hat to LeBeouf. Then, we can continue to make a truckload of money with direct-to-video movies, young Mutt Williams/Jones III tv shows, an animated series on MW/J3, MW dolls with funny limbs and a string of blockbusters for memorial day weekends.

After getting horrible nightmares of being tossed around by fans

Yes, I re-shot the transition scene. Now all you fans, allow me to make another Indy movie. Tan ta dattan, tan ta dan, Tan ta dattan, tan ta dan tan tan.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

NSHOTB

There is a saying : What starts well, ends well. Ironman, the New Super Hero On The Block, gets that just right. A fast-talking Robert Downey Jr, showing some "Tony Stark" attitude and downing some alcohol while "Back In Black" plays in the background. Ironman, you have arrived and arrived in style.

I am not a big fan of the Iron Man novels, so much so that I started digging up comics only after I saw the trailer. Even that was primarily due to the namesake soundtrack. And am glad I did. Marvel has had great success with it's super hero franchises, but almost all of them have their best days behind them. After two splendid movies in the series, the Spiderman and X-Men movies have hit a trough with their third. Ang Lee had great visions for the Hulk, but after a major overhaul, the series hopes for Norton to give it a boost. The Fantastic Four movies were terrible anyways (Jessica Alba included). To top that, Marvel just started their own studio and a success was needed more so than ever. Enter Robert Downey Jr.

Having someone say a movie's success is attributed to, of all things, Downey is similar to attributing success to a Silambarasan or Van Damme - entirely laughable. I would've too, only he gave sufficient notice with his brilliant performance in Zodiac. Downey plays the irreverent-rich-whizkid turned womanizing-hard-drinking-billionaire turned high-flying-innovator turned impulsive-crime-fighter like second nature. Be it his "Merchant of Death" speech at the beginning of the movie, or his impulsive blurt at the end of it, Downey fires a salvo at everyone who thought he was yet another hollywood-made alcoholic wreck.

Favreau has got many things right in this movie - a tight script (IMHO, could've been a bit longer), staying true to the origins of the character, enjoyable humor, visible nods to future directions in this series (loved Rhodes' "next time, baby"), a well-performing cast with Paltrow and Howard and the subliminal choice of Downey as Iron Man, probably because what lies ahead for Iron Man is what lies behind for Downey.

There are interesting times ahead for Marvel. They are trying to establish what they did in comics/novels into movies - which is to weave a broader arc with all their major superheroes. Tony Stark has a cameo in the upcoming Hulk movie, Rhodes gives a hint of where he is headed, S.H.I.E.L.D is in, there is a mention of the Avenger initiative (and you know who else is in by that). Add the 25c/copy sale of comic books that we found yesterday. There is no better time to be a comic book fan.

Iron Man treads oft-treaded territory where a Superhero is intentionally made to look more human than hero. Iron Monger is no Magneto nor Green Goblin. But still, its a great start to a promising series as long as Downey stays on-board. Its not my top Super Hero movie, that would still be Batman Begins followed by a bottomless chasm, but Iron Man has a refreshing feel after enduring the pain of X-men-3 and Spiderman-3. If nothing seems to interest you enough, go and watch it just for the stan lee cameo, the end-scene after the credits with someone you know from before or Gwyneth Paltrow. Heck, just go watch it for Gwyneth.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Dasavatharam

It has become the moral responsibility of any thamizh guy to write about this upcoming movie. Of course, we all know what incalculable hype does to a movie (Baba, Matrix Revolutions). Here is hoping it doesn't do the same to this one. Most blogs have a link to the trailer, then interpret what each frame means. This blog aspires to join in the mindless mayhem and aims to throw a punch or two. Heck, we remember how everyone concluded that "Old Kamal" is a hitlerian plotter after watching the trailer of "Indian". We also know how prophetic that turned out. Remember that after you watch the movie.

1. Its a movie set in different time-lines linking people to a common thread. So is it Darren Aronofsky's "The fountain" where Kamal is after the exact same thing in each of his "incarnations" ?

2. There is a crazy scientist and a president, both played by Kamal. Could it be Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" where one Kamal tries to destroy the world, the other is easily influenced by people around him, yet another tries to save the world, while the fourth probably drops the proverbial Nuke ?

3. There are admittedly a bunch of people sharing similar traits, and Kamal is running around in a room full of vats. I hope its not Michael Bay's "The Island" where Kamal realizes he is a clone and tries to figure out his other selves ?

4. There is a big,fat, presidential body-guard look-alike. Is it going to be some sort of a Bizzaro recreation "In the line of fire" by Wolfgang Petersen ?

5. We see kamal carrying an idol and running away from all and sundry with Asin on his side. Is this Kamal playing Robert Langdon from Dan Brown/Ron Howard's "Da Vinci Code" and saving a religious artifact that could potentially 'shake the roots of an entire religion' - something that Kamal would be glad to do for free ?

6. Cars flying everywhere, regular song sequences, explosions. No, not just another KS Ravikumar pseudo-entertainer. After 2+ years in development hell, numerous posts on when and if this movie will ever see the light of the day, an interminable court case, Kamal, Ravichandran and all Thamizh movie fans deserve infinitely more than one of KSR's Cookie Cutters.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Once In A Blue Moon

A leaves his Virudhunagar home early in the morning with his wife and 18-month year old kid. He makes the trip to Madurai in record time and leaves his family at his wife's place. His son lovingly tugs his shirt asking him to stay. A replies "Baby, I have some very important work to attend to. Let me finish it get back on the double" leaving a kid heart broken and a wife concerned.

B has his business clients from the Ramanathapuram-Tirunelveli belt in South Tamilnadu upto Bubaneshawar in the East. B is an MBA. B also owns an upmarket Honda Civic which none of his other friends have. B manages more than one business at a time. But he would give all that up today. All that, and even more.



C never believed in the 24-hour clock idea. For him, the night began at 10 and then, after an hour or so, it was 8 in the morning. It made perfect sense to him. After all, who would want to do anything at 7 am in the morning ?? Today, for the first time in his 30-year stay on Earth, C realized that there exists something called 4:30am in the morning. He actually pinched himself when we woke up today and immediately vowed he cannot repeat it for any other reason, any time in the future.

D has a big problem. He isn't sure where to go. He can go to Salem, but there is no guarantee he can get one. He can go to Hosur, but he needs a Panzer to travel on Hosur Road. Finally, he sets his eye on Kolar. Heck, he would have gone to hell and beyond if he had to.

E and the missus get stuck in a major traffic jam near home. As they slowly inch their way up the flyover, E gets a good view on why the traffic is jammed. Trying to control himself and failing miserably, E asks if he can just take U-turn and head straight inside. The missus gasps at the general sophistication level of the crowd waiting outside. E is secretly glad the missus never made the trip to madurai cira 1996. Pushing his luck, E asks the missus if she can ride the two wheeler to work alone since he has "some urgent work that has come up". The missus politely indicates her displeasure by breathing a hole through his jacket by breathing fire. E bites the bullet and dutifully obliges by riding to work. But his time will come. In the next two days. It better.

The economy reports a sudden jolt in dairy products, camphor, lottery tickets and card-board.

Hey, Its not every day you have a thalaivar movie released.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Scores Say "See"

this Scorsese blockbuster and undoubtedly, am one of them. If you are really expecting an impartial review from someone who used to check IMDB on a daily basis over the last year to see what's up with this movie, all that I can say is that my heart, well and truly, goes out for you.

Before I get into the review, do be informed that there are spoilers aplenty. A spoiler is anything that reveals information about a movie which could spoil the viewing pleasure. So, if you are one of those eccentrics who barks at your friends even for spilling inconsequential information, leave now or hold your peace.

With the movie being a remake of "Infernal Affairs", a movie I thoroughly enjoyed, comparisons to the original are inevitable and more often than not, the remake is conveniently thrashed concluding that it would never match it's original. "The Departed" begs to differ. Although I wouldn't say that it beats the original, it clearly stands up on it's own merit. Before I start on what worked, let me get the "What Didn't Work" part done.

Why the "rat on the railing" scene ?? Shouldn't those directorial touches pass you by instead of trying to jump and strangle you ??

The equivalent of "344 Wash Ave" in the original was iconic. The DiCaprio/Sheen sequence and the DiCaprio/Damon sequence pales in comparison to the Leung/Wong and Leung/Lau scenes from the original. In the original, the building was a character. In the remake, the building is, ermm, a building.

A plot hole to drive a hovercraft in : Leung had to call Lau to the building because the only person who knew his real identity, his best friend and mentor - Wong - had been killed there trying to protect Leung's identity. He was at a dead end and his reaction is understandable. DiCaprio, on the other hand, only had to sit at home and watch re-runs of Seinfeld waiting for Wahlberg to return.

Costigan vs Chan - A desperate, angry Chan over a neurotic, angry Costigan.
Sullivan vs Ming - A conflicting, but somewhat sympathetic Ming over an opportunistic, dislikeable Sullivan.
Advantage Infernal Affairs.

Now for what works:

Jack Nicholson - I forgive you for doing "Anger Management". You still have to beat "A Few Good Men" and "The Shining" before you retire.

Matt Damon - Sullivan is probably second only to Ripley.

DiCaprio vs Leung - An absolutely brilliant performance by DiCaprio, but a powerfully moving one by Leung. Let us just call it a tie.

"With a loaded gun at your head, What is the difference ??"
"I am the one who is doing his job. You must be the other guy"
"Cranberry Juice ??"
"One of us had to die. With me, it tends to be the other guy"
William Monahan, I am going to wait for your next movie.

The music score with Rolling Stones (Gimme Shelter), Roger Waters (not exactly the best rendition of "Comfortably Numb", but still) and Dropkick Murphys (Shipping up to Boston). Awesome.

Watching Scorsese get back to a genre which has his stamp all over it. I now know how people would have felt watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...

Few More Good Men

Talking about movie duos, some remember popular icons like Amitabh Bachan and Jaya Bhaduri while others remember under-rated pairs like Sivakumar and Saritha. There is another unclassified lot which remembers Satyaraj and Nameetha. This blog is not about any of them, but tries to acknowledge a few other stellar pairs which don't make omlettes around the other's navel.

5. Dicaprio and Scorsese

I can see the pro-scorsese lobby hinting that there is a typo and the name of the actor is actually spelt D-e-N-i-r-o. I perfectly understand. "Raging Bull", "Cape Fear", "Taxi Driver", "Casino", "Mean Streets", "Good Fellas", "King of Comedy", "New York, New York". Just how could one justify leaving out this celebrated pair from _any_ movie related blog ?? Hmm, maybe by the fact that, in reality, the author of the blog is a charlatan who has just seen only one of the aforesaid works ?? What DeNiro was in the early 80s, DiCaprio is becoming in the 2000s. With performances in "Gangs of New York" and "The Aviator" breaking him out of his candy-boy image he acquired from that movie with a big ship and a bigger iceberg, DiCaprio has definitely broken into the big league. The new Scorsese-DiCaprio movie, "The Departed", has been critically acclaimed (like many other Scorsese movies) and has also been a commercial success (unlike many other Scorsese movies). DiCaprio and Scorsese have already announced their new project, a bio-pic on Ted Roosevelt. The DiCaprio-Scorsese combine might not have achieved what the DeNiro-Scorsese pairing achieved, but it certainly looks good to get there someday.

4. Alfred Hitchcock and James Stewart

Alfred Hitchcock is a man who could make a nail-biting thriller with a cup and saucer set. Such is the immense talent of the man that he made people hesitate even before hitting the shower. When he combines with the everyday-man persona of James Stewart, the movies become startlingly life-like that it could actually happen to you. Their resume reads the under-appreciated "Rope", the slightly-over-the-top "Man Who Knew Too Much" and the classic-for-the-ages "Vertigo". At this point, it is well worth a shot to put forth Cary Grant as Hitchcock's best leading man (North by Northwest, To Catch A Thief). But James Stewart pulls one back with what is probably one of their best works in that gem of a movie called "Rear Window". Grab it first and watch it now.

3. Bhimsingh and Sivaji Ganesan

Whoever says Sivaji Ganesan hammed his way through his movies would probably also say that Charles Babbage was a worthless scientist because he didn't invent the Pentium Chip. Sivaji has had great movies with just about any director, a nod to his versatility. BR Panthulu stakes his claim as probably the best director to have worked with Sivaji. See for yourself : VeerapaaNdiya Kattabomman, Sabaash Meena, Kappalottiya Thamizhan and KarNan. Two biopics, A mythological costume drama and a light-hearted comedy to bring out different facets of the actor that is Sivaji. But with due respect to Panthulu, Bhimsingh beats him at the post with his contemporary, serious social movies. Be it a cripple who longs for acceptance in "Baaga Pirivinai" or a brother who defined the love for his sister in "Paasa Malar" or a disappointed husband who never stops trying in "Padithal Mattum Podhuma", Bhimsingh and Sivaji brought the movies closer to home than ever before.
Note : I have not even mentioned other classics like "Paalum Pazhamum", "Paarthal Pasi Theerum", "Padikkadha Medhai" and "Paava Mannippu".

2. Sergio Leone and Clint Eastwood

An actor/director combination which has been forced to work with each other for a bunch of listless sequels are available by the dozen. Mel Gibson and Richard Donner come to my mind immediately. What Leone and Eastwood did was to make the three movies great enough to be stand-alone movies despite being sequels of a sort. (Nitpickers: Yes, "Good,Bad and The Ugly" is technically a prequel.). For generations of people who have seen their famous super stars deliver a performance of infinite style with limited or no dialogue, The Man With No Name might not come out as someone new. But to imagine that even today the Simbhus and the Vijays rely on what Clint Eastwood did 40 years back speaks for itself. The barren landscape, the steely eastwood and some inventive camera work makes this duo one of the best. With a heavy heart, Steven Spilerberg and Harrison Ford, who combined to make what is possibly the best trilogy to date, take a bow and enter my "All Time Trilogies List" or some such.

1. Tim Burton and Johnny Depp

True they have made only four movies (excluding "Corpse Bride") unlike Chuck and Aaron Norris who have doled them out by the score. True Tim Burton at times makes movie that are so hard to understand. True that Tim Burton has made some great movies with other actors (Michael Keaton, for example). True that Johnny Depp has made other great movies with many other directors. But for the sheer amount of visual enjoyment that the three movies have given me, be it the backdrop or the performances and the colosally varied plots they have, I vote for Burton-Depp as the most entertaining Director-Actor combine that I have ever seen. While you can pin most of the actor-director combines under one broad head, Burton and Depp beg to differ with a dark fairy tale, a failed director's bio-pic, a children's joy ride and a ghoulish thriller. Ranks one in my book definitely.

Burton is no stranger to challenge the limits on visual creativity. His Batman movies stand tribute to that. Hence it is not a surprise when Tim Burton brings his own unique vision to the screen - be it a self-centered american suburb or the 1950s Hollywood or a mysterious chocolate factory or a turn-of-the-century village in upstate New York. Ably complementing this visual brilliance is Depp in his roles as a misunderstood machine-man, a complicated director, an eccentric inventor and an honest, resourceful but bumbling cop. Stand-out movie-fare.

Disclaimers, Other honorable mentions and Plain Lame Excuses:

I notice that hardcore movie fans still cannot believe that they didn't see Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune (Yojimbo, Sanjuro), arguably one of the greatest pairs to have ever graced filmdom, get a single mention. Hindi movie fans might find it hard not to see Prakash Mehra & Amitabh Bachan (Zanjeer, Muqqadar Ka Sikkandar, Sharabi) in this list. PLE #1: I have did my homework and collected Kurosawa-Mifune DVDs. Just give me some more time. PLE #2: My knowledge of Hindi movies is second only to my knowledge of Organic Chemistry. Next to nothing.

Back home, SP Muthuraman & Rajinikanth have churned out such commercial hits like "Nallavanukku Nallavan", "Guru Sishyan" and the master-kung-fu-master-teach-me-kung-fu inspired "Paayum Puli" while the yester-year combination of K Balachander-Nagesh have some timeless classics in "Neer Kumizhi", "Anubhavi Raja Anubhavi", "Edhir NeechaL", "Bama Vijayam" and "Major Chandrakant". K Balachander also has his share of classics with Kamal Hassan in "AvargaL", "Apoorva RagangaL", "VaRumayin Niram Sivappu" and "Unnal Mudiyum Thambi".

For all card carrying members of the pacifist group "Equality to women in the blogosphere, or else...", Saritha (Achamillai Achamillai, Thanneer Thanneer) and Sowkar Janaki (Iru KodugaL, Edhir Neechal") have had some memorable performances with K Balachander while Savithri has a few with BhimSingh (Paasamalar, Padithal Mattum Podhuma, Paarthal Pasi Theerum). So, there.

If you are planning to fast unto infinity because I missed your greatest movie duo of all time, the Klueless Karan Johar/Shah Rukh Khan combination or the Self-indulgent Selva Raghavan/Dhanush combination, do accept my best wishes for a resounding success in your attempt.

Read on ... (at your own peril, obviously) ...